Shivani Pandey-
Russia on Friday initiated administrative proceedings against Facebook’s Whatsapp as the latter failed to localize data of Russian Territory. However, there was no immediate comment from Facebook.
A day earlier, a Russian Court fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 3 million roubles for Infringement of personal data legislation and registered administrative proceedings against Facebook and Twitter for a similar offence.
Whatsapp reportedly could be fined between 1 million and 6 million roubles ($13,700 to $82,250), as reported by Interfax, citing court documents.
The Court date has not been announced yet.
The penalty comes in the middle of a wider dispute between Russia and Big Tech, with Moscow regularly fining social media giants for failing to remove banned content and seeking to urge foreign tech firms to open offices in Russia.
Russian Authorities have taken significant steps in recent months to regulate technology giants more closely by imposing petty fines for content violations, while also seeking to pressurize foreign companies to open offices in Russia and store Russians’ personal data on its territory.
Russia has earlier fined Google for not deleting banned content. Google has also annoyed the Russian authorities by blocking some YouTube accounts owned by pro-Kremlin figures and media.
Also read: Biden Administration: American Courts to dismiss Govt appeals on TikTok ruling